North Korean Leader’s Aunt Appears Unscathed

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Kim Kyong-hui, center, seems to have survived the execution of her husband, Jang Song-thaek, long viewed as Kim Jong-un’s mentor. Her name appeared on a leadership list over the weekend.CreditCreditKorea Central News Agency, via Reuters

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Kyong-hui, an aunt of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, appears to have survived the purge and execution of her husband, Jang Song-thaek, as her name re-emerged on a leadership list in the North’s state-run news media over the weekend.

The Korean Central News Agency on Saturday included Ms. Kim’s name in the roster of top officials appointed to a national committee in charge of organizing a state funeral for Kim Kuk-tae, a former party secretary who died on Friday at 89.

In North Korea, whether an official’s name is included on such a list is an important gauge of whether the official is favored by the government. Ms. Kim was placed sixth on the list, which included most of the top party and military figures. The list also included Vice Premier Ro Du-chol, one of the people said to have been close to Mr. Jang, discrediting recent news reports in South Korea that Mr. Ro might be one of the senior North Koreans said to be fleeing a widening political purge after Mr. Jang’s downfall.

Mr. Jang, 67, long considered to be the North’s No. 2 man and Kim Jong-un’s mentor, was executed on Thursday, the North announced, for plotting to overthrow Mr. Kim’s government. North Korea also indicated that it was purging those close to Mr. Jang, who was accused of building a network of followers in the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, the government and the Korean People’s Army.

Mr. Jang and his wife, who analysts believe to have been estranged, had been widely seen as parentlike figures for Kim Jong-un, helping their nephew establish himself as the supreme leader. As Mr. Jang’s purge unfolded, Ms. Kim’s name had also disappeared from North Korean news media, prompting speculation over her fate.

Typically, the entire extended family of a traitor is executed or sent to a prison camp in North Korea, but analysts have said that Kim Jong-un would be likely to spare Ms. Kim. She is the only sister of Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, who ruled North Korea before him.

Diminutive, frail and reportedly sick, Ms. Kim, 67, seldom appeared in public during her brother’s rule. But after his death, she raised her public profile by assuming more titles, accompanying Kim Jong-un during his public appearances and attending meetings where he has presided.

Sitting erect and grim-faced in an oversized chair, she had been the only female face in a North Korean leadership that is filled with uniformed generals.

Analysts have seen her as a regent helping to guide her nephew through the North’s treacherous internal politics to ensure a smooth generational change in her family’s dynasty. But her true status and her relationship with her husband had always been a subject of speculation.

Some analysts said that her value to Mr. Kim was largely symbolic: She is his eldest surviving blood relative, one of the links Mr. Kim has to his grandfather, the North’s founding president, Kim Il-sung, whose godlike status among North Koreans helped legitimize Mr. Kim’s own rule. After Mr. Jang’s execution, the North’s state news media exhorted its people to stay loyal to the “blood line” that Mr. Kim inherited from his father and his grandfather.

Even before Mr. Jang’s downfall, analysts in South Korea had speculated that he had been estranged from his wife. The couple’s only child, a daughter, committed suicide in France in 2006, according to the South Korean news media. In a party meeting on Dec. 8 that condemned Mr. Jang as a traitor, he was called a depraved and corrupt womanizer.

Yoon Sang-hyun, a deputy floor leader of the governing Saenuri Party in South Korea, told reporters on Dec. 8 that Ms. Kim had been “separated” from Mr. Jang and that she did not oppose his purge.

North Korea has purged top officials and relatives of the leader before, but it is highly unusual for the government to reveal the execution of one of them to the public. Analysts remained divided over whether it was a sign of instability or a demonstration of confidence on Mr. Kim’s part.

Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the execution of Mr. Kim’s uncle in extraordinarily strong and personal language.

“It tells us a lot about, first of all, how ruthless and reckless he is, and it also tells us a lot about how insecure he is,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview with the ABC News program “This Week” that was broadcast on Sunday but taped before Mr. Kerry left on an Asian trip.

Mr. Kerry acknowledged the difficulty of assessing the deeply opaque North Korean government. But he said there was sufficient evidence to view Mr. Kim as “spontaneous, erratic, still worried about his place in the power structure and maneuvering to eliminate any potential kind of adversary or competitor.”

The secretary of state said the recent developments underscored the urgency of efforts to denuclearize North Korea. His language, however, did not seem likely to lure North Korea to closer cooperation. Mr. Kim, he said, leads a “ruthless, horrendous dictatorship.”

Separately, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said that the execution not only sent a worrisome message about Mr. Kim, but also should severely embarrass China, North Korea’s closest ally.

“I think it’s very obvious this young man is capable of some very aberrational behavior, and given the toys that he has, I think it’s very dangerous,” Mr. McCain said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “You would think that the Chinese would understand that, as well.”

“They’ve got to rein this young man in — and they can.”

Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, the top political officer in the Korean People’s Army, is now considered the North’s second-most-influential man.

But “in the feudalistic Stalinist system of North Korea, even Choe Ryong-hae is nothing more than a ‘disciple or warrior of the leader’ who can be dismissed overnight,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher on the North Korean political system at Sejong Institute in South Korea, citing the fates of some of the people who were each previously known as the No. 2 man in North Korea.

Brian Knowlton contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: North Korean Leader’s Aunt Appears Unscathed. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe